'Bailing out' Wall Street

ON Monday, US lawmakers in the House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion plan aimed at rescuing the country’s collapsing financial sector. The plan had the US government buying the debts of investment banks.

The word “bailout” has been widely used to describe the plan, as in the headline, “Congress angry over bailout, Bush calls meeting”. Webster’s dictionary defines “bailout” as “a rescue from financial distress” (紧急财政援助).

Here is another example of how the term is being used:

Asian stocks were mainly lower on Thursday on concerns over a US bailout for the finance sector, after President George W. Bush warned the US economy could slip into recession (衰退) if the plan was rejected.

While “bailout” is a financial term, Chinese readers are more familiar with the phrase “bail out”, as in the sentence:

News that the alleged killer had been bailed out of jail shocked the country.

Here, to “bail someone out” (保释) is to release a person charged with a crime temporarily, sometimes on the condition that a sum of money is paid. The bail money allows the person to return home until their case is tried in court.

“Bail out” can also mean “to help someone out of a difficult situation” (帮助脱离困境). For example:

His parents spent all of their savings to bail him out of trouble.

The professor suspected her of cheating in the exam, but her best friend’s character testimony bailed her out.